Agie nodded. "Exactly! It is only right after all. People who do wrong ought to be punished. Like an ex professor of ours at Beaubaxton."She smirked, looking at Lyra and giving her a wink.

Hmmm, now the next question was asked. Agie had never had a pet, due to not being trusted. However, her sister Kerry once had a crup.

Clifford nodded at Miss Shackleton's conclusion. Something about displaying displeasure ... something, something ... prevent from happening again ... It was difficult concentrating on what it was she was saying. But he was trying!

Okie Dokie. Next scenario.

How would he handle it if he recieved an owl from home stating that his favourite pet had died? Well ... his favourite pet, that was Orion, and Clifford didn't even want to think about the little owl that was up in his dormitory nibbling holes through all his socks ... dying. That was just awful.

Sniffle.

Ella's chin was well settled in her palms when the professor assigned them for something new. Ofcourse a sad note they had to write. Ella sighed, picked up her quill from the desk, staring at the board for a while inorder to gain some points to write.

She re-read her parchment before, looking around to see what others doing. She leaned over to Dominic, "Hey, Do you have any childhood pet?" asked, waiting for others to finish.

Rachel had kept quiet throughout the lesson, trying to get her mind back on track. This lesson required more concentration than the rest, and she felt like if she would speak up, she'd make a fool of herself. So, instead of participating like she usually does, Rachel settled for taking extensive notes, smiling a little as she enjoyed listening to her classmate's responses around her.

She was really glad when she had found out that the levels were going to be separated this year as it meant that she would be able to get a more in depth view on the subject. Putting her exhausted quill down and massaging her hands, she felt like she was ready to do the next assignment following that thought. You might as well go down to the Basic Arithmancy if you don't talk at all.

Her face went slightly pale as Professor Shackleton described the next situation. She imagined Cloudy, his tiny face limp and dead as he lay lifeless on the floor, his white fur contrasting almost painfully with the brown wood. She swallowed and fought the urge to run up to the Owlery this instant to send Jake a letter demanding to know how her precious cat was doing.

Pulling herself together, she took in a few deep breaths and tried to think about the situation objectively. Setting her face into a smooth mask as she came up with a reasonable answer, she wrote it down quickly:

"At first, I would probably be very miserable and it's very likely that I would cry quite a bit too. After that initial phase, I would think of all the good times we had together and try to persuade myself that even though it's sad, my pet had had a good time while they were alive so they died happy. I think that I would force myself to think of my pet's reaction to their own death and then I'd realise that, since they are childhood pets, they were very old and they'd had a full life so it was probably time for them to go, even though I would have much preferred them not to. Of course, I would still be extremely sad, but that thought would help me make it through the fact that I'll never see them again," she said out loud, her lips turned slightly down at the corners as she spoke. It was very hard to talk about it without breaking out into immediate tears, and she was proud of herself that she had managed it. Shifting slightly in her seat, she looked down at her written response in note form, rereading it again and again until she practically knew it off by heart.

Professor Shackleton listened to the comments of everyone who volunteered their response to a very serious and potentially sad hypothetical situation. She summarized, "There seem to be a great variety in the responses. Some of you would shut out the world for a few days to allow yourself to truly feel the grief that would come to you. Others would reflect upon happier times in an attempt to not dwell on the sadness, or distract yourself with other activities."

Professor Shackleton paused in the center of the circle and explained, "I know the scenario I just proposed may provoke very strong emotions in many of you. I apologize if any of you are upset, but there is a point of this exercise. I know that many of you regard Arithmancy as a subject that you wouldn't bother using in your day to day life. It is merely an exercise in mathematics to many; however, I want this exercise to show you that Arithmancy can help you deal with some very difficult challenges in your life. It is a life tool, which if you're open to it, can be very helpful and informative. From this class exercise, you all have made the connection between the Balance Number and challenging situations in your life. By thinking of a very painful scenario, you've now recognized how you previously handled these types of situations. Arithmancy can provide you with suggestions to ease that pain, or at least deal with it in a way that may be more productive to healing. I hope none of you have to experience anything like my last scenario, or my first for that matter, but I hope now you know that Arithmancy can help you, and I am always willing to show you how." Having nearly faced death herself very recently, she relied on Arithmancy a great deal to help her through it. She wanted to be sure the students truly knew the value of the numbers.

Professor Shackleton glanced meaningfully at her students before continuing the lesson, "Now, I want you to hold on to what you've written down because you will be comparing your response to the situations I proposed to what the Balance Number tells you in your homework. So, I suppose we should discuss how to calculate this number then, huh? Who can share with the class how we calculate the Balance Number?"

Lillianna raised her hand,"I believe I can Proffesor." she said brushing her hair out of her eyes. "You are supposed to add zee numbers of your initials unteel you get a number between one and nine."

Jessica thought for a few moments, and then wrote her answer on a piece of parchment.

After writing this down, Jess listened to Professor Shackleton and waited to calculate the Balance Number.

It hurt. Helios' head throbbed, and his normally shimmering hair was looking rather dull. Why were they being told to think about these things? Pets die. Big deal. It seemed to bother the other students though.

Fighting the empathic rush, Helios muttered. "Eighteen." Probably not relevent, but it was considered Gods number. The least possible number of moves to solve a rubix cube.

What sort of math class was this?

Dominic glanced over as he heard someone whispering to him and eyed her warily. It was Ella Stone - an older puff. Cautiously keeping his focus on the front of the classroom and his head of house, Dominic shook his head at Ella to show he had heard her. But nope, no childhood pet for him. Darned allergies of his father - the man who never seemed to have much time for him or his mother.

Before he could dwell more on his stupid father, his head of house began speaking again and Dominic focused on her words to distract himself. Pfft - using Arithmancy to deal with conflicts in a productive manner!? Canaries! He only enjoyed Arithmancy because he didn't really have to use it; just calculate and interpret his numbers. But application never really seemed necessary.

Oh wait. The balance number.

Slipping his challenges from the scenarios under his parchment, Dominic raised his hand, "You calculate your balance number by adding the numerical value of your initials in your full name at birth and reducing them to a single digit or until a Master number is encountered."

Setting her quill back down on the desk, Evangeline raised her hand once more. "We're meant to add the numerical value of our initials of our full name at birth and reduce it till we get just one number." She said with a solemn nod. "Or until we get a Master number, I believe."

Clifford was beginning to forget what all this stuff had to do with numbers and the whole Arithmancy thing, and raised a hand at Miss Shackleton's next question. Wheee!

"To get the Balance Number.." He started, tickling his chin with the end of his feather quill. "You hafta add up the value of the initials in your name, with your full date of birth. Then you do that whole reducy thingymabob till you get a single number, or one o' those cool Master Numbers."

Rachel made a mental note to copy down her response in a neater way and listened to Professor Shackleton's question. Smiling, she raised her hand and said, "To work out your Balance Number, you add the numerical values of your initials and reduce them until you reach either a single digit number or a Master number. It's important to remember to use the initials you had at the time of your birth."

Karma listened to what all Professor Shackleton had to say. She really liked this class so far, and was very interested in it.

"To get the Balance Number, you add up the initials of your full name from the values of one through nine. From that, you reduce the number to find either a core number of one through nine again, or a Master number."

"Correct you are, even if you did read it off the page of the textbook. Though I suppose it is tough to make this part original anyway. Three points to Hufflepuff, Mr. Denton."

"Very good. You are correct and earn two points."

"Ah, you are very close, but a person's date of birth is not part of the calculation. It involves solely the initials in a person's name. But I'm pleased you think so highly of the Master Numbers." Professor Shackleton's lips curled at the corners ever so slightly.

"Quite correct. Two points to Ravenclaw!"

"OK, so now we know how to calculate the Balance Number. Let's put this into action. I'd like two volunteers please."

Evangeline immediately raised her hand. "I can help, Professor!" Weee!

"I'll help as well Professor!" Karma said, excited.

Whew. She juuuuuuust made it. Grin.

He hadn't got it right? Sniffle. But - But she was smiling! That was guuurd! Hehe. "I'll volunteer, Miss Shackleton." He stated, raising a hand. He had to make up for that mistake! Yup, yup!

Dominic frowned slightly when the Professor mentioned about reading off the textbook. Perhaps he did, but whatever, it was tough to make it original. Nonetheless he was pleased he earned three points and sat back and waited.

Until his head of house asked for volunteers. Hand popping instantly into the air, Dominic spoke, "I'd like to volunteer!"

Even though a few other students had already volunteered, Anna raised her hand to volunteer anyway. Maybe she'd get lucky and be chosen as one of the two. "I'd like to volunteer, Professor Shackleton," she offered. As she waited to see who would be chosen, Anna continued to flip through her textbook, trying to get as much information about the balance number as she possibly could.

Tobi raised his hand, he certainly knew his full name didn't he? "I can volunteer Professor!"

"Well, I only needed two, but since you're all so eager, I'll use all four of you." She grinned, pleased with the desire of her students to participate. "As many of you know, I am a triplet. But what you may not know, is that we were all sorted into different houses when we were students. I was a Ravenclaw, my sister Adamaris was a Gryffindor and Isabella was a Slytherin. Funny enough, I'm now Hufflepuff Head of House, so we covered all four Houses, but that isn't really relevant, is it? Anyhow, the three of us were as much the same as we were different. While our Arithmancy numbers dealing solely with the birthdate were always the same, the ones involving the letters in our names showed how we were different, the Balance Number being one of them.

"Why do I tell you this story? Well, you four are going to come up to the boards and calculate the Balance Numbers for my sisters and me, and for our new Headmaster, for good measure. Evangeline, why don't you take my full name - Macadrian Ashling Shackleton. Karma, you can take my sister Isabella Maire Shackleton. Clifford, you'll calculcate for my other sister Adamaris Hiolair Shackleton. And Dominic, you'll calculate Headmaster Reynard F. Bontecou."

Rachel listened attentively as Professor Shackleton instructed the volunteers on what to do. She pouted slightly as not raising her hand in time, but let it pass. She always got really nervous when she was called to the board anyway. Jotting down the important bits, Rachel did the quick calculations on her own parchment while using the book and waited for the volunteers to do it so that they could compare.

Barry wanting to know everything did the calculations himself and smilled they were very different. Then he waited for the others to finish

Oh! Even though he hadn't been one of the first two, the Professor was going to use him anyway!! Inwardly squealing with the excitement of volunteering, Dom listened to Shackleton speak about the task - beginning with a little history of her own.

Once she told the four of them their assigned people to calculate, Dominic nodded. He got the Headmaster's number to calculate!

Glancing back up at the board, the fifth year rose from his seat and walked towards the front of the room, picking up his writing utensil and began to write his calculations.


Reynard F. Bontecou
Initials: R. F. B.

R = 9
F = 6
B = 2

9 + 6 + 2
= 17
= 8

Balance number = 8

Clifford listened carefully when Miss Shackleton started telling them about herself. She was a triplet!? That meant there were THREE Miss Shackletons?

Wow...

He smiled lightly at Evangeline when she got instructed to calculate Miss Shackleton's Balance Number. LUCKY!

So he had to calculate the Balance Number for her sister, Adamaris Hiolair Shackleton. Oh drat. Whydid she have to have such a long name? That meant more adding up ... and that meant more room to make mistakes. Gulp.

Taking a deep breath, the nervous sixth year approached the board and started calculating, brow furrowed in concentration.

Quote:

A - H - S
1 - 8 - 1

1 + 8 + 1 = 10
1 + 0 = 1

Balance Number = 1

"I - I think that's right, Miss Shackleton." He mumbled unsurely, the back of his neck burning.